World Racers Pray… A LOT… for Anything and Everything
We pray all the time and so much more than I ever imagined praying. At home when I get a headache, I search for Excedrin; it never crosses my mind to pray or to ask for prayer. It’s almost a last resort, I mean why pray and HOPE that God answers my prayer rather than take a pill that I KNOW will kick in eventually and relieve the pain?
But that’s the whole problem isn’t it? I HOPE but I don’t BELIEVE and KNOW that God will answer my prayer. I’ve been stretched in huge ways when it comes to my belief in the power of prayer. I pray at home, but I don’t expect an immediate response… especially a visible response. I’ve just been taught over and over that God doesn’t work in that way anymore and that we just have to wait on His timing. So, it seemed that every time I prayed it wasn’t His timing.
Our ministry involves praying for the people that come out to see us in the villages we visit. We pray for healing and blessings, and for the first few nights it seemed like nothing was happening. We were hoping for miracles, but we didn’t see any. We’d all gather around a person, pray once and be done. If there wasn’t an immediate visible change, well then it just wasn’t God’s timing, right? What if God WAS ready to heal them, but He wanted us to BELIEVE not only that He COULD but that He WOULD? I’m not saying that it’s God’s plan to heal every single person we pray for, but rather, we need to BELIEVE that in any moment the person we pray healing over CAN and WILL be healed.
Our squad leaders visited us this week and taught us to pray fervently and to continue to pray over and over, even if we don’t see the healing we expected right away. We adopted this attitude, and our ministry and prayers have changed. We’ve seen healing and lives changed! We pray fervently for people, we don’t give up if we feel the Spirit telling us not to. The other night I prayed for a woman with back and side pain. I prayed for her for a good 30 minutes, stopping every so often to ask her how she felt. Every time I stopped and asked, she was feeling better and better, but we don’t believe in partial healing, so I didn’t stop praying until when she crouched down and stood up. She no longer struggled or felt a pinch in her back. It’s not just about healing, but more about the faith to believe that God answers our prayers; that He hears us and responds.
“Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” Matthew 21:21-22
We’ve started BELIEVING that God not only CAN but WILL answer our prayers and it has been incredible!
Much Love,
Jess
